Lawfare is bloodless warfare.

I have already reported how lawfare, which was defined by Air Force Deputy Judge Advocate General Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap following 9/11, is becoming the new hot button for defenders of Washingtons and Tel Avivs foreign policies.

Using the law itself to subvert existing constitutional arrangements and, ironically, to undermine legal restraints has been around for quite a while, having been developed by Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt in the 1930s. In its contemporary American version, lawfare initially was used by progressives to threaten unindicted war criminals and to take the offensive against egregious violations of civil rights, such as at Guantanamo Bay prison. But it has now been adopted by governments and government-supported entities to tie up opponents using lawsuits and other forms of litigation.

Lawfare is bloodless warfare. When it is used by a government or an officially sponsored group, it has two aspects. First, it can be used to expand government prerogatives, making what was illegal legal and indemnifying those government employees who have broken the law. Second, it can serve as a tool to punish those who oppose government policies. Making the illegal legal is what John Yoo and Jay Bybee did in the George W. Bush White House when they issued legal judgments supporting torture. It is also what the Barack Obama administration has been doing in obtaining legal advice in expanding the FBI use of national security letters and in saying that the war against Libya is constitutional. The Obama administration has also protected government employees through granting de facto immunity to torturers by refusing to allow the Justice Department to prosecute them. It has used lawfare extensively to defend itself against criticism and whistle-blowers by citing the state-secrets privilege to stop legal challenges, making government employees essentially free from any accountability.

Sued by Israelis for Terrorism Financing ?

The Israeli government and its American supporters have caught on to the potential of the legal weapon and are increasingly using lawsuits to tie up and punish opponents and critics. The New York State Supreme Court recently ruled that a lawsuit filed by a group of 84 Israelis against the Bank of China can proceed in U.S. courts even though none of the plaintiffs are U.S. citizens and the alleged crime took place outside the United States. The plaintiffs, who claim to be victims of terrorist bombings and rocket attacks carried out by Islamic Jihad and Hamas in 2006 and 2007, are asserting that the Bank of China enabled the attacks by providing wire-transfer services to both groups. The plaintiffs lawyer argued successfully that anyone can sue in American courts against any organization that the State Department has labeled as terrorist.

The law was also exploited in an attempt to stop Junes Gaza flotilla. A lawsuit filed in federal court in New York City claimed that the sponsoring organization, the Free Gaza Movement, was raising money and preparing ships to be used in hostilities against American ally Israel. This would be a violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act. The suit was initiated immediately after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department made clear that they were considering even harsher measures, such as charging flotilla participants with material support of terrorism under the PATRIOT Act.

The New York lawsuit was filed by a U.S. citizen with the assistance of the Shurat HaDin, or the Israel Law Center, which was established as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) to use the law against groups that are perceived as being hostile to Israel. It is headed by Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and her husband, Avi, who have described their organization as a means of fighting back, which is particularly appropriate for Israel because, they say, the Jews invented law.

The organization works closely with the Israeli government even though it describes itself as an NGO. It received marching orders to stop the Gaza flotilla at all costs, as well as an offer of full support, directly from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. With Netanyahus backing, the group asked United States Attorney General Eric Holder to take steps to stop the American participants.The group also approached Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who obligingly wrote a letter to Holder suggesting that the flotilla passengers might be prosecuted as Neutrality Act violators and terrorism supporters.

Rick Perry, Texas Gov.

The group also approached Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who obligingly wrote a letter to Holder suggesting that the flotilla passengers might be prosecuted as Neutrality Act violators and terrorism supporters.

Dershan-Leitner explains the passion behind Perrys support: I once spoke at a mission that Perry took part in, in Israel. And he approached me and said I love what you do. Its amazing what you do. If you ever need help combating Israels enemies, Im here to assist.

Shurat HaDin harasses targeted groups with litigation so that they become ineffective or, even better, bankrupted by legal costs. Shurat HaDin was also behind the filing of a lawsuit in Greece claiming, incorrectly, that the flotilla ships were engaged in hostilities and also that they had not complied with Greek safety regulations. The suits in New York and Athens were palpably of doubtful validity, but once the legal process started grinding, all that was needed was a friendly judge in either location to jeopardize the sailing.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner

The Greek government, needing a friendly White House to avoid economic default, was happy to oblige. Responding to the Shurat HaDin lawsuit, the Greek minister of civil protection declared that Gaza was an illegal destination port for ships departing Greece. He then ordered a meticulous inspection of the vessels in the flotilla, grounding six or seven over contrived safety issues.

Shurat HaDins website claims that it is fighting for the rights of hundreds of terrorist victims. In its relentless assault on the Gaza flotilla, it also went after private companies that would provide goods and services to the vessels involved. Intimidation was the name of the game. It boasted, We are continuing our legal battle against the Islamic terrorists and extremist NGOs organizing the naval flotilla to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Last week we targeted the international insurance companies [and] today Shurat HaDin sent warning letters to the UK- and U.S.-based global satellite company INMARSAT, stating that it may be liable for massive damages and criminal prosecution if it provides communication services to ships used by suspected terror organizations in the Gaza flotilla planned for late June.

Israels lawfare center has now expanded its activities by initiating legal action against its own citizens and foreigners connected to any and all flotillas. In 2010, Shurat HaDin petitioned the courts to hold indefinitely all detainees captured during that years tragic flotilla, which was intercepted by Israeli commandos, who killed nine Turks on the grounds that they were terrorist supporters. The courts rejected the demand, so Shurat Ha Din tried again. This year, on June 29, it supported the filing in Israeli courts of a private criminal prosecution against 13 named passengers who sailed on the flotilla of 2010. The suit contends that the 13 supported terrorist activity by being part of the flotilla.

Curiously, the suit was filed not by Shurat HaDin but by two individuals who claim to be reserve soldiers and who contend that they and their colleagues would be placed at risk by flotillas and might be subject to unprovoked attack while going about their military duties. The intention is clearly to create a legal precedent that any and all flotillas and similar humanitarian efforts should be regarded as support of terrorism, which would permit the Israeli government to bring terrorism charges against all the individuals involved. It would also permit friendly governments like the United States to follow up with their own prosecutions.

To their credit, the Israeli courts appear to be disinclined to proceed with a criminal case against the 13, none of whom is currently in Israel, and there are certain anomalies in the presentation. The alleged terrorist entity that is being supported and is the target of the petition is clearly Hamas, but the group is never named. Also, the two plaintiffs, Lior Tsuker of Kibutz Alon and Or Yirmihau Lipman of Tel Aviv, cannot be positively identified by independent investigators. According to court documents, the two plaintiffs claim that they are acting on behalf of the active-duty soldiers who were involved in stopping the flotilla who cannot be named because doing so would invite retaliation in the form of their identities appearing on lists of war criminals maintained in various jurisdictions in Western Europe, an indication that lawfare can sometimes work in two directions.

Amid all the sound and fury, it is important to recall that none of the vessels involved in the 2010 flotilla incident ever reached either Israeli or Gazan territory. They were intercepted in international waters. At that point, the passengers and crews had done absolutely nothing, illegal or otherwise. When the boats were hauled into the port of Ashdod, no weapons were found on any vessel.

Defining the flotillas organizers as terrorism supporters is a cheap trick, but if it passes muster in Israel, all it takes is an American judge or prosecutor to buy into the argument and bring about an indictment of any American citizen who tries to break Israels Gaza blockade. Eric Holder would hardly object, and it is not unimaginable that the Justice Department would make criticism of Israel de facto and de jure a crime in the United States. Could the accused be convicted in an American court of terrorism support given that they had done nothing illegal, particularly in light of their First Amendment rights? Maybe not, but stranger things have happened in the past 10 years. Since lawfare as practiced by Shurat HaDin is little more than an instrument to intimidate and threaten, dragging flotilla participants into court and forcing them to pay for lawyers will be seen as a victory. More disturbing than the actions of obvious Israeli partisans like Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is the willingness of the Obama administration to go along with the charade and the enthusiasm of Republican governor and presidential wannabe Rick Perry to join in. When the U.S. criminal justice system falls in line and plays the Israeli game, we will all be in trouble.

Philip Giraldi, is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served 18 years in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was Chief of Base in Barcelona from 1989 to 1992, and designated as the Agencys senior officer for Olympic Games support. Dr. Giraldi holds an MA and PhD from the University of London. He speaks Spanish, Italian, German, and Turkish. He is also Executive Director of CNI ( the Council for National Interest)

It's not just Google/YouTube defunding altenative chanels (mine was shut), but Facebook is also removing content, shutting pages, profiles and groups and removing funds from #altnews that way as well. I was recently kicked off FB and had a page "unpublished" with no reason given. If you don't know already all Facebooks Private Messages and Secret Groups are still analysed and checked for words related to drugs, sex, war etc against their own TOS. Personally IU know there are undercover Irish police moving from group to group cloning peoples accounts and getting people booted. Worse than that I know people in court at the moment for the content they had on their secret private group. Use Telegrams secret chat mode to chat on, or if you prefer Wickr. Or if you need to, buy a dumb phone with nothing for the NSA to hack into if you are that paranoid. Ensure it has no GPS tracking on it and the battery can be removed. These are usually built for old people to get used to technology storing only a set of numbers to call. However they have no games, applications to install and other ways people can exploit the computer tracking device you carry round with you most of the day.

So if your not supporting this site already which brings you news from the Left to the Right (really the same war mongering bollox) then I could REALLY do with some..

Even if it's just £5 or tick the monthly subscription box and throw a few pound my way each month, it will be much appreciated. Read on to find out why.

Why?

Any support to keep this site would be appreciated. You could set up a monthly subscription for £2 like some people do or you could pay a one off donation as a gift.I am not asking you to pay me for other people's articles, this is a clearing house as well as place to put my own views out into the world. I am asking for help to write more articles like my recent false flag gas attack to get WWIII started in Syria, and Trump away from Putin. Hopefully a few missiles won't mean a WikiLeaks release of that infamous video Trump apparently made in a Russian bedroom with Prostitutes. Also please note that this article was written just an hour after the papers came out, and I always come back and update them.

If you want to read JUST my own articles then use the top menu I have written hundreds of articles for this site and I host numerous amounts of material that has seen me the victim of hacks, DOS plus I have been kicked off multiple hosting companies, free blogging sites, and I have even had threats to cease and desist from the US armed forces. Therefore I have to pay for my own server which is NOT cheap. The more people who read these article on this site the more it costs me so some support would be much appreciated.

I have backups of removed reports shown, then taken down after pressure, that show collusion between nations and the media. I have the full redacted 28/29 pages from the 9.11 commission on the site which seems to have been forgotten about as we help Saudi Arabia bomb Yemeni kids hiding in the rubble with white phosphorus, an illegal weaapon. One that the Israeli's even used when they bombed the UN compound in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. We complain about Syrian troops (US Controlled ISIS) using chemical weapons to kill "beautiful babies". I suppose all those babies we kill in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Syria are just not beautiful enough for Trumps beautiful baby ratio. Plus we kill about 100 times as many as ISIS or the Syrian army have managed by a factor of about 1000 to 1.

I also have a copy of the the original Liberal Democrats Freedom Bill which was quickly and quietly removed from their site once they enacted and replaced with some watered down rubbish instead once they got into power. No change to police tactics, protesting or our unfair extradition treaty with the USA but we did get a stop to being clamped on private land instead of the mny great ideas in the original.

So ANY support to keep this site running would be much appreciated! I don't have much money after leaving my job and it is a choice between shutting the server or selling the domain or paying a lot of money just so I can show this material.

Material like the FSB Bombings that put Putin in power or the Google no 1 spot when you search for protecting yourself from UK Police with "how to give a no comment interview". If you see any adverts that interest you then please visit them as it helps me without you even needing to give me any money. A few clicks per visit is all it takes to help keep the servers running and tag any tweets with alternative news from the mainstream with the #altnews hashtag I created to keep it alive!

However if you don't want to use the very obvious and cost free ways (to you) to help the site and keep me writing for it then please consider making a small donation. Especially if you have a few quid sitting in your PayPal account doing nothing useful. Why not do a monthly subscription for less money instead. Will you really notice £5 a month?

About Dark Politricks

Dark Politricks is a site dedicated to investigating the dark side of politics including corruption, propoganda, the police state, war on terror, the intelligence services and their misdeeds, false flag attacks and much more. The site also promotes free speech, internet freedom and social justice. For an overview of my beliefs and political leanings please read this.

Whereas the site contains many articles from various sources I do write a lot of my own essays and I am now having to pay for hosting to ensure that this under reported content is available. So please help me continue to do so by visiting advertisers sites or making a small donation.

Get instant notification of new article postings and other news collated from the best sites on the net by following me on